Evaluation of the High School Transcript

The high school transcript is the most important piece of the academic review process at Providence College. With each high school transcript, our admission counselors will take a close look at a student's curriculum, context of high school environment, grades achieved, and class rank (if available and if provided).

Generally speaking, students who are most competitive for admission to Providence College have taken four years of the five core subject areas: English, math, science, history/social science, and foreign language. Our most competitive candidates have also taken on appropriately challenging Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), or other advanced-level courses offered to them in their high school environments.

The grades that a student has achieved during high school are considered hand-in-hand with that student's curriculum. It is important to note that the Office of Admission completes a recalculation process of each student's grade point average in order to consider applicants from different high schools fairly. Only the grades achieved in core academic subjects - plus Religion courses where applicable and electives taken at the Honors, AP, or IB level - will be included in the recalculated grade point average.

Context of a student's high school environment is another important factor that the committee on admission considers during the evaluation of each candidate's application. The initial review of all application files is conducted by geographic region, which helps each member of the counseling staff to understand the academic environment, opportunities for advanced coursework, and other special programs that may be available within a specific high school.

Class rank will be considered during the review process if it is provided by a student's high school. However, many high schools do not report class rank during the college application process. Students will not be penalized in the admission review if their high school does not provide class rank information.